Kazunori Yamauchi has set a pretty high target for himself… this might be his next move aside from the Gran Turismo series.

The father of Gran Turismo gave an interview to KPMG, and here, he described what he wants to do next: „Well, I intend to continue Gran Turismo going forward, which will be in the same boat as the car culture and automobile industry. At the same time, I would like to also do something different. I think that one of the missions of video games is to realize digital twins by connecting the real and digital worlds. On the other hand, I also think that “the reality that can be felt by humans may not necessarily be felt from something real,” and I intend to confront this question for sure. I would like to take on the challenge of creating a world where people feel more reality than the real thing, whether this is through Gran Turismo or not.

[…] I am a firm believer that only technology can change society and make people happy. That’s why I hope that our future will be one where technology is used to make people happy. This, for instance, is associated with my origin. In the 1970s, mountain foothills and flat land, very much like the world of Totoro, extended in my hometown Kashiwa City. As I liked to collect insects and climb mountains from when I was a child, I used to spend all day in the forest or playing in the river. I think these experiences are extremely important in life. However, this is probably not possible in Japan now. In that case, why not create some kind of digital nature and convey the complexity and severeness of the world when we get out into nature and the feeling that things do not work out as one expects. This is what I am fantasizing about.

I would be happy if we could offer the experience we learned from nature when we were children such as “breathlessly observing what is occurring before our eyes, and making a hypothesis, understanding and acting based on this observation” through video games. I believe that this is my mission,” Yamauchi said.

Since he only worked on racing games so far (Motor Toon Grand Prix 1-2, Gran Turismo series, Tourist Trophy), it would be a big turn for him.

Source: WCCFTech